Fabian Cancellara crashes out of the Tour of Flanders 2012
Fabian Cancellara of Team RadioShack-Nissan was amongst the favourites before the start of the Tour of Flanders 2012.
It was believed that final battle will be between the Swiss and Tom Boonen after the duo started off the season on a high note.
Cancellara was riding alongside Boonen but could not hold on to the mountainous route of the Belgian event.
He had to face the disappointment after a devastating crash in the final kilometres of the race. The Swiss crashed in the last 62 kilometres and could not continue the race.
"I didn't see it. It's sad because with Fabian it would've been much nicer," Boonen told Sporza.
Tom Boonen, Filippo Pozzato and Alessandro Ballan continued their struggle towards the finish line and set the peloton in the same order.
Boonen grabbed his third overall victory at the race after the 2005 and 2006 versions of the race. He overcame the team-mate Pozzato and Ballan after an exhausting battle towards the end of the race.
The trio finished almost at the same time but Tom was declared as the overall winner of the race after his best overall time of 6 hours, 4 minutes and 33 seconds.
"I was worried about heading to the finish with those Italians. They know each other well and I feared that they would kill me, but the strong headwind was my ally”.
“I had to count on my sprint. I started too early and didn't have much left but it was enough", said a happy Boonen.
Team RadioShack-Nissan was counting on Fabian but the 31-year-old could not produce the desired results for his side.
Cancellara had a terrific start to his 2012 season with an overall win at the Strade Bianche.
He finished second during the Milan-San Remo and also succeeded at the seventh stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico 2012.
The four-time World Champion suffered a triple fracture on the right collarbone as confirmed by the team and is now taken to Basel, Switzerland for Surgery.
The cyclist’s current situation is not certain and it is not known if he will recover in time to represent the team for the coming big events of the year.
The only two victories claimed by the team came through Cancellara and the Luxembourg based side is hoping for a quick recovery to strengthen its chances at the Paris-Nice 2012.
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